Chapter 16

London Policewoman Kate Sandsmark, through considerable effort both within and outside her official duties, had managed to narrow the most recent location of 'The Great Talbot' to somewhere in Brighton. She'd convinced her Matron; Sergeant; and Chief Inspector of incomplete documents which must be attested-to and signed before a case file could be closed; stated the final deponent necessary to sign said documents had located to Brighton; and assured such signature could only be obtained under an officer's care. Kate had twice visited the sea-side city; once with her parents and brothers and uncles and aunts and five annoying and undisciplined cousins; and a few years past on an ill-conceived romantic rendezvous which the less said the better. But if Talbot followed his usual habits, as most criminals do, she was certain he'd be found somewhere very close, or within, the areas most frequented by visitors: Piers, sea-walks, and 'conveniences' appealing to those on holiday while sheltering all manner of rascals, rogues, bucksters, artistes, and other questionable personages. In uniform or civilian clothing, she would be obvious. Fortunately, she knew someone who wouldn't.

"...'n that's why you don't never want to believe one a' them, Miss Etta. Nearly never" Eve finished as Etta Candy turned the key to her front door and the two stepped inside. "Well, that's very good information, Eve. I'll certainly remember if I ever find myself in need of itinerant French pantomimists."

"Shhh, Tess's asleep." Kate set down the magazine she'd been paging through and turned toward the doorway. "She's been resting as long as I've been here; about half an hour. I used the key you left me, Etta, and I've been waiting. I hope that's alright."

Etta looked toward the front window, at the chair and footstool she'd arranged for Tess who appeared to be sleeping far more deeply than a padded parlour-room chair should allow. "Oh, we took longer than we should. Of course, Kate, that's why I wanted you to have it - someone has to check on Tess. Seems the day just got away from us, we were having such an enjoyable time. Isn't that right, Eve?"

"All-in-all, Miss Etta. Could 'a done without the clothes-trying-on part, though. Didn't care much for that."

"That was the entire purpose of our trip, dear," Etta sighed; "and successfully completed. Wait until you see the lovely outfits we found, Kate. Eve will scarcely be the same girl."

"I need her to be the same for a bit more. Let's go in here where we can talk."

"Can I get everyone a cup of tea?" Etta offered the moment she'd stepped into the kitchen, the sight of cabinets and cupboards and guests and an empty tea-pot triggering some deeply-seated compulsion.

"Maybe later, thank you" Kate replied; "come and sit with us; there's something we need to discuss."

"Oh, is this official business?" Etta asked, removing her hat and taking a chair at her little kitchen table. "Not more robberies and assaults, are there?"

"No, not that I've been informed. And 'official', only as it connects to Diana..."

"Diana!?" Eve perked.

"...and Mr. Holmes."

"Oh." Eve drooped.

"Diana mentioned last night, just before we, ah...apprehended those suspects in the alley..."

"That was only last night?" Etta interrupted. "It seems like ages ago!"

"Yes, just yesterday. She said each of the suspects; every man; seemed almost unable to control himself, their actions ranging from fury to irrationality to insanity. Mr. Holmes is interested in someone he's identified as possessing significant mental abilities and who speculates in the potential to harness un-worldly powers. Today I learned there have been reports of animals - abandoned dogs; loose cats; even birds - with no signs of being attacked or ill, yet behaving in inexplicable ways leading to their deaths. And the reports show every assault holds only one thing in common; theft of precious jewels, usually of rather large size. Despite what other injuries or losses to victims, each were missing necklaces or pendants or broaches or stick-pins consisting of substantial gems."

"Couldn't that be their technique, Kate? Only attack those wearing the most obvious valuables?"

"Possibly; but gemstones have more uses than demonstrating one's wealth; scientists have found, if aligned and focused properly, the stones can split and amplify light. Some believe, if oriented so light reflects within and between gems large enough or in sufficient quantity, it's possible to control energy and transmit it directly through the air."

"Like lightening?"

"Yes, Eve, or any other type of energy. Possibly even energy that's invisible. Psychic energy."

"Ahh, now Kate, that sounds like Spiritualism. Calling on the dead and bells ringing in darkened rooms and someone's great Aunt Bertha appearing from 'the other side' when she'd hardly taken the time to visit you on this side" Etta scoffed. "You don't believe in that, do you Kate?"

"I don't know if I do; but some of the greatest minds in the world think there may be something to it. But that's not what I'm talking about;" she faced Eve; "I wonder if someone, with practised mental skills, has found a way to enhance those skills so he's not only reading minds, but controlling them."

"Wha?" Eve replied. "You talking about Talbot?"

"Talbot, or someone like him."

"Lawd, Officer Kate, that's all made up. I scout the marks...uh, audience, when they walk in, lookin' at their clothes and the expressions on their faces, and if they're alone or with somebody else, and their shoes - shoes is important, let me tell you - and notin' down the most interesting one's on little slips of paper, where they're sitting and so forth. Then, just before the show starts, I give the papers to Talbot who hides them in his hat or inside his sleeves or in little pockets sewn into his cape and when he goes into a 'trance' he's just pulling out a paper and reading it. It's all made up, jus' for fun."

"Well, Eve, some people are paying high prices for that 'fun', as you well know."

"I'm sorry, Officer Kate. I never wanted to do it in the first place, but...there was nothing else."

"That's all over and done, so no need reflecting back on it" Etta announced.

Kate bit her lower lip, uncertain if she should continue; what she was about to suggest would place her reputation, personally and professionally, into question. "When Diana and I went to your 'show', Eve, and spoke with Talbot, he knew things about her he shouldn't; things Diana was surprised to hear and, I think, wished to hide. I don't know what that could have been, but I'm not convinced Talbot is only a back-street huckster but he holds, to some degree, abilities he may, or may not, understand. Is he behind the assaults and robberies; the attacks and murders? No, I don't believe so; but whoever is, he and Talbot inhabit the same world. Talbot's not going to willingly disclose any secrets; his or others; and," Kate placed her hand on top of Eve's, "I need you to draw them out of him."

"Wha? I'm not goin' back into that, not jus' when I got out." Eve's complexion rose to scarlet, she turned her head so the women wouldn't see the tears forming in her eyes. "She can't make me, can she, Miss Etta? I'd rather go to prison. Here, Officer, Kate," she held out her arms, "put the cuffs on me. I'd rather go to prison. You don't know what it's like, livin' like that, nothing to call your own and not knowing where you'll sleep tomorrow an' men gawking an' grabbin' at ya' an' every night takin' advantage a people and feelin' bad about it and wishin' you didn' have to an'...an' bein' alone. I'm not goin' back!" She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her new blouse long before Etta could offer her a handkerchief.

"No, Eve, that's not what I meant, not at all" Kate emphasised. "It will all be an act, just for a few minutes, and I'll be there with you; just outside, listening to everything that's said and watching that nothing happens to you. I'd never, never ask you, or anyone, to go back to that life. I'm sorry if that's what you thought, Eve."

"You're safe with us now, dear, and we only have your best interests to heart" Etta affirmed, taking Eve's hands into hers and glancing accusingly at Kate. "No one's going to take you away, and no one's going to take anything more from you."

"Then it'll all be pretend? For a few minutes?"

"That's right, Eve. In Brighton. Visit the seashore?"

"I've never been to the seashore. Just th' Thames. That's not the same, is it?"

"No, that's not the same" Etta replied. "Do you think you can be brave and strong enough to help Kate?"

"I am brave and strong. Diana said so. Officer Kate,..." Eve sat up in her chair, smiling as best she could and wiping her eyes and nose on Etta's well-used handkerchief. "...when do we leave?"

Chapter 17

Eve had barely slept in thirty six hours, excluding the nap she'd taken Sunday morning during the Church services Etta insisted she attend. Kate and Tess and Etta assumed Eve's restlessness was due to excitement over her imminent visit to Brighton; and while this was partially true; the railway to Brighton scheduled at over two hours and Eve had never been on such a long journey nor so far from London; what Eve felt wasn't exhaustion, but anxiety. Despite the assurances of Officer Kate and Etta's promises, Eve knew what it was like to be abandoned and how easily a person can be discarded when someone else decides they're no longer needed. She didn't expect any of her new friends to do that to her, of course; but she hadn't expected it to have happened before, either.

So as they sat side-by-side in their standard-class coach, Kate wasn't too concerned that Eve had so far uncharacteristically said very little, attributing her silence to drowsiness; and Eve had tried to let loose of her worries and appreciate the moment, absorbing the sights passing her window: Forests apparently without end, certainly filled with highway-men and wild animals and possibly even forest-folke; gentle, sweeping hills pocketed with fairy-tale villages; and, nine times now; she'd been counting; groups of cows standing in grassy fields when all her life she'd never actually thought of just where cows live. The train steadily traveled southward, having already passed Croydon and Coulsdon and coming into Crawley when Kate, trying to break the silence, stated she was thirsty and asked if Eve would like something from the porter.

"What do you think Talbot's doin' in Brighton, Officer Kate? Particularly since this isn't the time 'a year for holiday-makers."

"Talbot?" Kate replied, expecting Eve to have requested tea or sandwich or cake. "Most likely engaged in another of his schemes. Believes he's disappeared and left London far behind. Quite a shock he'll have to see us, I should think."

"He's run the show there before, you know" Eve stated indifferently.

"His act? When was that?"

"Lila told me, when she was his assistant. Said he was working on one of those spiritualism schemes - make people think he can talk with someone they know that's dead, then tell 'em just enough the first time so they keep coming back. 'Lot's of people looking for what they've lost', he'd say. 'And willing to pay good money to be told what they want to hear.' He'd gone in with a partner and they'd got a building and everything; used to be a church, Lila said, so that would make it more believable, like there was really something religious about it."

"But it didn't work out the way he'd planned?" In all her research and investigation, Kate hadn't come across anything Eve was sharing.

"All Talbot wanted to do was rig up some tricks - wires that make a table look like it can float in the air, trapdoors in the floor, wardrobes that open up into other rooms; but this partner said they don't need any of that, between the two of 'em, they can make people believe anything he wants 'em to believe, all he needs is someone to stand up front dressed smart, but him - the partner - he'd be backstage doing all the real work, talkin' with spirits or whatever. That's when Lila says she's had enough and she's not getting mixed up in anything un-Godly and tells Talbot he has to choose between her and the partner." Eve turned from the window and toward her seat-mate. "Talbot's; Percy's; not a bad person, Officer Kate. I think he's lost. Sometimes he believes his act more than the audience does. He'd like to be able to know the future, and tell fortunes, and maybe even 'go beyond the veil', like he says, but it's easier running a two-penny grift than it is looking for something and bein' afraid to find it. He's done some things I can't account for - like when you and Diana come to the show and was sitting up on the top row, and Talbot says Diana's from a long way away and he sees a sword and shield, meaning Diana's strong and brave. He was right, and I don't know how he did that. But then he just makes a joke about it being a good guess or something. When that partner of his said he could really make those things happen I think Talbot got scared, and told Lila he'd just keep on with the mind-reading act and drop all that talk about spirits. I told her I wouldn't mind trying it, being his assistant, and she said she'd be there to keep me safe but then, she wasn't." Eve turned back to the window, where she could loose herself in the trees.

"Did your sister say what happened to the partner? Did he remain in Brighton?"

"Only that she and Talbot had to get out quick 'cause the partner got mad and said they'd be sorry; that he wasn't going to let a common carnival performer cheat him out of his due. Then he disappeared and the last Lila said about it, they never heard from him again and it must 'a been a bluff. Month or so ago Talbot told me this summer we'd go and set up the show in that church; it'd be almost like a holiday and it wouldn't be like we was taking advantage of all those people out for 'a good time', 'cause in a place like that they wouldn't mind a bit a fun. That old church, I guess he never sold it back."

"You may have saved us many hours investigative work, Eve. Much of what you told me isn't in Talbot's police records and I uncovered nothing in the newspapers. See," she smiled, "I knew you were just the right person to bring along."

"Thank you, Officer Kate. It's just things I remember. Hot cocoa and ginger snaps."

"What's that about cocoa and ginger snaps?"

"It's what I'd like from the porter, please. If he has 'em."